Estes Park Trail Gazette - Mayor and Trustee endorsements

Each election year, the Trail-Gazette’s staff and editorial board interview the candidates for public office and study what they say during public forums.

The Trail-Gazette does that to gain a clearer picture of the candidates, their interests, their leadership skills, their opinions of the top issues of the day, and so on.

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The Trail-Gazette editorial board and staff then discuss the candidates and come up with a list of candidates that they “endorse,” or believe to be the strongest candidates to be elected.

Charley Dickey

As we have said many times in the past, our endorsements are our opinions which are based on our research. It should not be construed in any way as the Trail-Gazette pulling for or campaigning for a candidate.

There are three candidates running for mayor in the April 5 municipal election. They are Christine Heiberger, Todd Jirsa and Chuck Levine. There are seven candidates running for town board trustee. They are Joseph Placek, Jessica McGee, Patrick Martchink, Cody Walker, Paul Fishman, Ron Norris, and Charley Dickey.

Mayor

We believe all three candidates for mayor brought some positive skills to the table. All were enthusiastic. All had varying degrees of knowledge of the top issues facing the town.

Paul Fishman

Having said that, we found that Heiberger, who has only lived in the community the past two years, needs more time in the community to familiarize herself with local issues. We believe she might be a viable candidate in a few more years, especially if she immerses herself, time and energy on some of the town’s board and committees.

Jirsa is a long-time downtown businessman who is very smart. He served well as the President of the Estes Park School Board. While some who served with him on that board thought he was a little overbearing at first, they went on to point out that they liked his leadership style and that they enjoyed working with him.

Jirsa is passionate about town finances and the business community. He’s made no secret that he would like to see the town do away with the business license fee or lower it significantly. He claims the town of Estes Park is difficult for businesses to work with.

He also is critical of the town spending down its reserves in 2016 to a level of about 18 percent. He would like to see the reserves higher, 25 to 30 percent.

He also is critical of the town’s infrastructure, claiming he calculates that the town has about $100 million in deferred maintenance. He would like to reprioritize expenditures so more money can be put aside for deferred maintenance.

He would like to raise town revenues and keep expenditures down. One way of doing that, he suggests would be through natural employee attrition, essentially not replacing town workers when they leave. He also suggests that more work should be done “in house” and not shipped out.

He says he will support a town utility for broadband only if the current study on the take rate says it can be done.

He’s critical of the town’s events center, calling it “the scariest part of the budget” and “an albatross around the town’s neck.” And, he’s critical of the current flood plain map, claiming it was done with flawed data.

If elected, Jirsa says he will “focus on doing the right thing.”

Levine is about giving back to his community. He has served on the boards of numerous non-profits since he moved here in 2002. He attended the Citizens Information Academy. He’s served on the Larimer County United Way board and the Community Foundation of Northern Colorado board.

He also served four years as an Estes Park Trustee (2004-2008) and four years as Estes Park Mayor Pro-Tem (2008-2012).

He currently serves as the secretary on the Park Hospital Board of Directors which oversees the operations of the Estes Park Medical Center.

His knowledge of the community is extensive.

Levine says he is big on partnerships, using a collaborative process on the town board, and being a convener.

He admits he, too, is concerned about the town’s infrastructure, has no problem with the business license fee, and supports economic development: “If we don’t continue to grow, we will die.”

He supports broadband, calling it necessary to bring in new types of business. He also would like to see affordable workforce housing addressed as a priority.

When asked about cutting expenses through employee attrition, Levine flinched.

“I can’t see how you do more with less.”

He said his vision of the town was to see all the various stakeholders united, “all rowing in the same direction.”

We feel that both men would do a good job under the right scenario but we feel Levine has the most experience, the most skills needed, and has the best chance to “connect” will all groups in the community.

Therefore, we endorse Chuck Levine for mayor.

Trustee

Having seven candidates vie for three trustee seats says a lot about our community. And, when two of those -- McGee and Martchink -- are under 40, it speaks volumes about the passion of representing our community.

So, where do we start?

Let’s start with Placek. While he seemed friendly and engaging during the League of Women Voters forum, Placek refused to meet with the Trail-Gazette staff and editorial board. Therefore, what little we know about this person comes from the LWV forum. We know his career path is engineering management with a strong sense of science. Beyond that we know very little. During the forum, Placek tended to agree with many of the other candidates and seldom offered a fresh viewpoint.

For those reasons and others, we couldn’t consider him a viable candidate.

McGee is an Estes Park native, born and raised. She is a 35-year-old mother with a daughter in the fourth grade. McGee works for the Estes Park Housing Authority and as an innkeeper at one of the local inns.

McGee is passionate about affordable housing, knowledgeable about vacation home rentals, knows the school system well, and is eager to volunteer when called upon.

We really like McGee but feel she needs some “seasoning” which could come by volunteering her time on any of the town’s various boards or committees. It would be refreshing to see this young woman, with a little bit more knowledge, run for the town board the next time around. We openly encourage her to do that.

Martchink, much like McGee, is a very passionate person. He brings to the table the knowledge of what it is like to try and find a home for a young family in Estes Park. He’s smart, well-intended and has some knowledge of a number of town issues.

But, like McGee, we believe he also needs some “seasoning” on some of the town’s boards and committees. With a little time on these to get up to speed on all of the town’s top issues, he would make an outstanding candidate next time around.

So, we would like him to retain his passion, become more informed, and run again. Please.

That brings us to the final four candidates for trustee. It’s a real shame that we have to select three because we can honestly see any of these four being a strong trustee.

We’ll just cut to the chase here.

Norris, in our mind, is a no-brainer. He’s a current trustee who is up to speed on all issues. He brings his engineering background into play for the board at nearly every meeting. He asks great questions and engages others on the board to get involved in the conversation. He pays attention to details and he’s extremely intelligent.

We endorse Ron Norris for trustee.

Dickey is one of the most well-informed businessmen in town. He’s served on the Planning Commission and goes beyond his duty to bring parties together in a number of arenas. He attends nearly every town board regular session and most study sessions.

He’s easy to talk to and people on both sides of some very sticky issues feel comfortable talking to him.

We endorse CharleyDickey for trustee.

The real challenge for us has been trying to decide between Fishman and Walker. Both are outstanding individuals. We like them both a lot -- for lots of reasons.

Fishman is a local chef who really, really cares about town government. He goes to all town board meetings. He ran for town board in 2008, 2010, 2014 and again in 2016.

His platform is simple -- doing the greater good for Estes. He’s for responsible development. He supports accessory dwelling units. He supports changing our zoning codes to increase density in some areas and allow for taller structures. He wants to see the environmental assessment before he supports or opposes the Downtown Loop.

He believes in discussion and compromise. “Don’t look at numbers, look at the validity of the argument,” he says.

He doesn’t believe in town staff attrition. He does believe in having a decent reserve balance.

Walker probably has the deepest roots in town. His family homesteaded in Colorado and then moved to Estes Park in 1959 to start Sombrero Ranch, the business he currently runs.

Besides his high profile business, Walker currently serves on the Estes Park School Board as its president.

He understands policy governance, having used that on the school board.

He says he wants “to take our town back … and give it to the people who have a long-term interest in how this town’s going to operate.”

It is a tough call but we believe that Fishman is more up to speed on town issues and is better when it comes to seeking out all points of view.

We also have a problem with Walker insisting on keeping his position as president of the school board if he’s elected as a trustee. Both positions -- school board president and trustee -- require someone who is capable of focusing all of his/her energy to that one board.

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